Game Mastering from the Female Perspective

Gencon: Part 1 (Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday)

Last week, I was able to go to Gencon, and play 6 RPGs, 2 LARPs, and 2 True Dungeon sessions. I’ll be writing up posts based on my schedule for each day.

For those who don’t know Gencon is a gaming convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Con hosted over 60,000 unique visitors this year. Overall, it has anything you could want when it comes to games, and more.

I arrived Tuesday though the actual Conference didn’t start until Thursday. I spent the first couple days just playing games, and hanging out. Wednesday afternoon, I played in a LARP based on various Sci-Fi shows including Babylon 5, Stargate, and Battlestar Galactica. I had fun, and felt I made at least one of my goals. Of course, my enemy died within the first few minutes which did make things much easier.

Thursday was my first very full day at Gencon.

A Murder in Whitechapel
GM(s):Kayla Tepps, Eric Sester
System: Brass & Steel (tabletop rpg)
Thoughts: This was a finding Jack the Ripper rpg. I’d recently done research on the ripper murders for a game, so I was quite impressed at how closely they followed the historical facts, and were able to weave a story in it. It focused on investigation with only a single battle, but I really enjoyed the story. There had been a mixup and they ended up with double the amount of people the expected trying to play. The GMs were able to make due, and everyone had fun. I’d play with these GMs again in a heartbeat.

The Folding of Screamhaunt Castle
GM(s): ? (Not listed on gencon site, and I will have to do some deep digging to find it)
System: 13th Age
Thoughts: This was a classic ‘the house is trying to kill you’ game. It was incredibly creepy, and I loved it. One thing I appreciated about the GM is he stopped at some point to make sure I was ok with the detailed of gore he was going into. I was, and he continued, but I appreciated him asking. 13th Age plays much like D&D, but it’s a system that I’m interested in looking into a bit more.

Hunting Totenkopf
GM(s): Jeff Mackin
System: Minirpg
Thoughts: This had some interesting ideas. Grab a bunch of story icons (Harry Potter, The Dude, Scooby Doo, and Batman) add a dash of Lovecraft and throw it all in a blender, and see what trouble happens. The system is still in beta, and could use some balancing, but it was fun. Not sure what the designer is going to do about IP, but overall, I thought it might be worth looking into in a year or two.

My days tended to start at 10am and end at 2am and this one was no exception. I’ll have ‘Part 2: Friday’, tomorrow.

RPG: Role Playing Game (usually referring to tabletop type)
LARP: Live Action Role Playing